The present invention relates to a capsule filling machine by which an empty capsule composed of a cap and a body temporarily coupled to each other is transported while the posture thereof is controlled to an erected state with the cap directed upwardly and, during the transportation, the empty capsule is separated into the cap and the body and contents substance is filled into the body, whereafter the cap and the body are coupled to each other again to produce a filled capsule product, and more particularly to a capsule filling machine by which, even when it fills contents substance which is very low in bulk density and very inferior in fluidity or formability such as crushed substance of weeds, grass or tea leaves or silicon dioxide and which it is difficult for a conventional filling machine to fill by a fixed amount with certainty, it can be filled by a fixed amount with certainty to obtain a filled capsule product stably.
Conventionally, filled capsule products such as pharmaceutical capsules as medicine or so-called health foods formed from capsules filled with various foods are produced by automatically filling contents substance into capsules using a capsule filling machine.
Usually, a capsule filling machine is constructed such that a hard empty capsule composed of a cap and a body temporarily coupled to each other is transported while the posture thereof is controlled to an erected state wherein the cap is directed upwardly and, during the transportation, the empty capsule is separated into the cap and the body and contents substance is filled into the body, whereafter the cap and the body are coupled to each other again to produce a filled capsule product.
In this instance, as means for filling contents substance into the body of the empty capsule in a state wherein the cap and the body thereof are separate from each other, a system wherein various contents substance of various kinds of powder and so forth are formed into a predetermined rigid material and charged as such into the capsule body (the official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-7388) or another system wherein contents substance in the form of powder or granule is flown into the capsule body by vibrations or the like (the official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 4-58340) is adopted.
However, the conventional capsule filling machine cannot sometimes exhibit a sufficient performance depending upon the type of contents substance.
In particular, contents substance to be filled into a capsule may assume various forms, and a large number of kinds of contents substances which are inferior in formability or fluidity are present. For example, contents which are low in bulk density and inferior in formability and fluidity such as silicon dioxide powder which is used as a medicine or an additive to food cannot be efficiently filled by a predetermined amount into a capsule by the conventional capsule filling machine described above by which contents substance is filled by the system wherein it is formed once and charged as such into the capsule body or the system wherein vibrations are applied to contents substance so that the contents substance is flowed into the capsule body. Further, although, in recent years, applications of hard capsules in the field of so-called nutritional foods other than applications to the medicine have been and are increasing, since the properties of nutritional foods are more various than the medicine, many nutritional foods are difficult to fill into a capsule using the conventional capsule filling machine described above. Also, many nutritional foods are very low in bulk density and have little formability or fluidity such as, for example, crushed substance of weeds, grass or tea leaves, and it is almost impossible for the conventional capsule filling machine described above to fill such nutritional foods into a capsule to stably produce a filled capsule product of a fixed content.
The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a capsule filling machine by which, even where contents substance is low in bulk density and inferior in formability and fluidity, it can be filled well into a capsule and a filled capsule product of a fixed content can be produced with certainty.
In order to attain the object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a capsule filling machine which includes a cap transport member having a cap pocket in the form of a through-hole for accommodating a cap of a capsule and a body transport member having a body pocket for accommodating a body of the capsule and wherein the cap transport member is placed on the body transport member such that the cap pocket and the body pocket are registered with each other and an empty capsule in a condition wherein the cap and the body are temporarily coupled to each other is accommodated into and transported in a capsule pocket formed from the cap pocket and the body pocket in an erected state wherein the cap is directed upwardly, and then, during transportation of the empty capsule, the cap and the body are separated from each other in the capsule pocket and the cap is held in the cap pocket while the body is held in the body pocket, whereafter the cap transport member and the body transport member are separated from each other once and contents substance is filled into the body accommodated in the body pocket of the body transport member, and then the cap transport member is placed onto the body transport member such that the cap pocket and the body pocket are registered with each other and the cap and the body are coupled to each other within the capsule pocket formed from the cap pocket and the body pocket to produce a filled capsule product, characterized in that it comprises a contents substance filling member including a force feeding screw disposed in a chamber having a lower end opening disposed above the body transport member, and when the cap transport member and the body transport member are separated from each other, contents substance is force fed and filled into the body accommodated in the body pocket of the body transport member by the contents substance filling member.
In particular, the capsule filling machine of the present invention fills contents substance such as medicine or foods into a capsule body, which is separate from a cap and is accommodated and held in the body pocket of the body transport member, by the contents substance filling unit disposed on the body transport member and couples the capsule body to the cap again to obtain a filled capsule product such as a pharmaceutical capsule or capsule foods.
In this instance, in the present invention, the contents substance filling unit used includes the force feeding screw disposed in the chamber so that contents substance supplied into the chamber is compulsorily force fed into the capsule body by the force feeding screw.
Accordingly, with the capsule filling machine of the present invention, even if the contents substance to be filled into a capsule is low in bulk density and inferior in formability and fluidity, it can be compulsorily force fed and filled into the capsule body by the force feeding screw, and filled capsule products in which a predetermined amount of contents substance is filled can be produced stably and with certainty.